We've got some exciting news for this fall, and we wanted you to hear it first.

Our first Blu-ray discs are coming! We've picked a little over a dozen titles from the collection for Blu-ray treatment, and we'll begin rolling them out in October. These new editions will feature glorious high-definition picture and sound, all the supplemental content of the DVD releases, and they will be priced to match our standard-def editions.

Here's what's in the pipeline:

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear

Alongside our DVD and Blu-ray box sets of The Last Emperor, we'll also be putting out the theatrical version as a stand-alone release in both formats, priced at $39.95. Our Blu-ray release of Walkabout will be an all-new edition, featuring new supplements as well as a new transfer; we will also release an updated anamorphic DVD of Nicolas Roeg's outback masterpiece at the same time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhanlen1

Dammit... that means it'll be $60 now for a Blu-ray edition...

Seriously though... anyone heard any concrete pricing info? I finally upgraded to Blu-ray today (after getting a PS3) so this is good news. Good news other than the fact I bought The Third Man a few months ago for 30+ dollars.

This is great news. The holidays are really looking like the time when we might see Blu-Ray really take off, with a slew of new players, more PS3 games, all of the major studios releasing titles, and numerous niche distributors, including high-end ones like Criterion. The sweet spot for all of this will be about Thanksgiving.

The wild-card is the economy.

And I'll be double-dipping on several of the Criterion titles. The price equality with DVD is particularly appreciated.

Dude. That was number one on my list of films that should never be put on to any HD format. Ever.
No. But if it was released I would watch it out of curiosity in HD.
NO. That's not funny. What if Criterion were to really think about it. Now I can't sleep. In HD?!

P.S. If any body doesn't know what Salo is, go rent it and watch it as soon as possible. You'll hate me later.

Ridiculous codec tier sig gone. Still AVC/24bit lossless fanboy.

Studio quality tierMost Major studios>Small Studios>dogs>cats>Warner(the guys that do new movies)

In all seriousness, Armageddon was actually not a bad film. I own the Criterion DVD, and I would upgrade to the Blu-ray.

However I think Disney will probably be handling the Blu-ray release of that film. I'll pick it up when it's released, no matter who releases it. It is very much the definition of big, stupid fun done extremely well.

From the start of this project, Bertolucci has insisted that Storaro have ultimate approval of the mastering of the feature. This master was made in Rome under Storaro's direct supervision, with Bertolucci's approval. When we asked Storaro about the framing of the film, he unhesitatingly told us that the correct aspect ratio for The Last Emperor was 2:1. He told us that The Last Emperor was the first film he shot specifically for 2.0 framing, and Bertolucci backs him up.

Quote:

I recently had the pleasure of joining producer Jeremy Thomas at a screening of The Last Emperor, and I asked him about this issue. Was it really true that they had envisioned the film less wide than the 2.35:1 aspect ratio in which it was commonly screened? Thomas said that they had originally hoped that all of the original release prints would be in 70 mm, framed at 2.2:1 or 2:1, but not 2.35:1 or 2.33:1.

Even if we have always known it to be 2:35 is it not our hope that the directors intended (OAR) vision is shown?...JMHO, Ill still buy it as that is one of my favorite classics.

Even if we have always known it to be 2:35 is it not our hope that the directors intended (OAR) vision is shown?...JMHO, Ill still buy it as that is one of my favorite classics.

It's all because Vittorio Storaro decided that he now only likes the 2.0:1 aspect ratio. Not only is he only shooting in that AR (which is perfectly all right) but also he is going back to all of his previous titles and imposing a 2.0:1 reframing (which is NOT all right), at the expense of discarding picture information. We saw that happen with Apocalypse Now and we saw it with The Last Emperor.

It's all because Vittorio Storaro decided that he now only likes the 2.0:1 aspect ratio. Not only is he only shooting in that AR (which is perfectly all right) but also he is going back to all of his previous titles and imposing a 2.0:1 reframing (which is NOT all right), at the expense of discarding picture information. We saw that happen with Apocalypse Now and we saw it with The Last Emperor.